Reflections in the mirror: Bias, stereotypes and professional responsibility

In this issue, Flynn and colleagues (see record 2020-40858-002) have authored an important article on the positive role for behavioral health integration in improving health, mental health, and quality of life for Latinx primary care patients along the U.S.-Mexico border (Flynn, Gonzalez, Mata, Salinas, & Atkins, 2020). The title of the article is "Integrated Care Improves Mental Health in a Medically Underserved US-Mexico Border Population." Article titles, of course, never tell the full story contained within. The author's use of the term medically underserved as a descriptor invites reflection on other potential descriptors of this tender and vulnerable population. How about soul-battered? Isolated and invisible? Medically maltreated? Human rights denied? In this commentary, I hope to draw heightened attention to the importance of health care practitioners' turning inward, exploring our contributions to health inequities, and turning down the impacts of stereotypes and implicit bias in how we work with our patients and our teams. You will also find within these lines a call for upstream social change in how our society rectifies historical social, environmental, and health injustice and inequities. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved).